Savoy Hotel

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This article is about the Savoy Hotel in London. For other uses, see Savoy (disambiguation).
Front elevation
Front elevation
Hotel facts and statistics
Location London, United Kingdom
Opening date August 6, 1889
Developer Richard D'Oyly Carte
Architect Thomas Edward Collcutt
Management Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Owner Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal
No. of rooms 263
Website www.fairmont.com/Savoy

The Savoy Hotel is a five-star hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London that opened on 6 August 1889. The hotel, called "London's most famous hotel",[1] remains one of London's most prestigious and opulent hotels, with 263 rooms and panoramic views of the River Thames across Savoy Place and the Victoria Embankment, part of the Thames Embankment.[2]

The hotel has been closed since December 2007 for extensive renovations and is expected to reopen in the summer of 2009. The cost of the renovation is estimated to be £100 million.[3][4]

Contents

[edit] History

Opened in 1889, the hotel was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte, the owner of the adjacent Savoy Theatre, and designed by architect Thomas Edward Collcutt, who also designed the Wigmore Hall. Carte chose the name "Savoy" to memorialize the history of the property: In 1246, King Henry III granted the land to Peter, Count of Savoy, the uncle of his wife, Eleanor of Provence. The Savoy Palace, a very large and elegant palace, was built on the property. It later passed to John of Gaunt, 2nd Duke of Lancaster, and was burned during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. Carte eventually bought part of the property to build the Savoy Theatre (1881) specifically for the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, of which he was the producer.[5]

Savoy Hotel, Strand entrance, 1911

The hotel was built on a plot of land, next to the Savoy Theatre, that Carte originally purchased to house an electrical generator for the theatre (built in 1881), which was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. The construction of the hotel took five years and was financed by the profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, particularly from producing The Mikado.[6] It was the first hotel lit by electric lights and the first with electric elevators.[5]

The hotel's first famous manager was César Ritz, who later became the founder of The Ritz Hotel. Ritz hired celebrity chef Auguste Escoffier. Sir Arthur Sullivan sat on the Board of Directors, and his good friend, the Prince of Wales, stayed at the hotel, along with a host of celebrity guests attracted by Ritz's luxury management of the hotel. The hotel was such a success that Richard D'Oyly Carte bought other hotels. The Carte family expanded the hotel in 1904 and continued to operate the hotel. Richard's son, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, became chairman of the hotel, and later it was taken over by his daughter, Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte. The hotel continued to attract celebrities. During World War II, Winston Churchill often took his cabinet to lunch at the hotel, and Princess Elizabeth was first seen in public with Prince Philip at a Savoy reception.[5]

In 1998, American private equity house Blackstone Group purchased the Savoy. They sold it in 2004 to a group of Irish investors who sold it eight months later, for an estimated £250 million, to Al-Waleed bin Talal, to be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts of Canada from Maybourne Hotel Group, formerly known as The Savoy Group.[1] In December 2007, the hotel was closed to undergo a refit to a design by Pierre Yves Rochon, Reardon Smith and Buro Happold, the cost of which will be in excess of £100 million.[7] The projected reopening date is late in the summer of 2009.[1]

[edit] Famous guests

Numerous famous guests have stayed at the hotel. Claude Monet[8] and James Whistler both stayed at the hotel and painted views from their rooms of the River Thames. Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas both frequented the Savoy, which featured prominently in Wilde's subsequent trial for 'gross indecency'. Bob Dylan stayed in the hotel in 1965, and filmed the video clip Subterranean Homesick Blues in an adjacent alley. He was also allegedly confronted by hotel security guards over a wine glass being thrown out of the hotel room window, onto the street below. The Beatles, U2, Led Zeppelin, Sarah Bernhardt, Enrico Caruso, Lillie Langtry, Charlie Chaplin, Ivor Novello, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Elton John, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, The Who, Richard Harris, Julie Andrews, Shirley Bassey, Jimi Hendrix, and Marilyn Monroe stayed there. Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen prefers the hotel when staying in London.

[edit] Restaurant

New Year's Eve dinner at the Savoy, 1907

The Savoy Restaurant (sometimes referred to as the Savoy Grill) has long been famous for its inventive chefs. Its kitchen saw the invention of Peach Melba, created in honour of Dame Nellie Melba by the legendary French chef Auguste Escoffier. Melba toast is also attributed to the hotel's kitchen; it is said that Dame Nellie ordered toast and was served with several pieces that were unusually thin and crisp and almost burnt, thus creating a new dish.

Elegant dining at the Savoy includes formal afternoon tea with choral performances at Christmas time including soloists. Soprano Donna Bruce gave a mesmerising performance of Madonna and Child in 2006 which was well received by everyone.

The Savoy has a Sunday brunch including free-flow champagne, and special events, such as New Year's Eve dinner.

Kaspar, a 3-foot high black alabaster cat sculpted by Basil Ionides, is used as an extra guest when thirteen dine, to stave off bad luck. He is given a full place setting.[9]

[edit] Savoy Court

Savoy Court is the only street in the United Kingdom where vehicles are required to drive on the right[10]. This is said to date from the days of the hackney carriage when a cab driver would reach his arm out of the driver's door window to open the passenger's door (which opened backwards and had the handle at the front), without having to get out of the cab himself. Additionally, the hotel entrance's small roundabout meant that vehicles needed a turning circle of 25 ft (8 m) in order to navigate it. This is still the legally required turning circle for all London cabs.[11]

[edit] The Savoy cocktail book

Cover of the Savoy cocktail book (1999 ed.)

In 1930, the Savoy Hotel published a cocktail book, 'The Savoy Cocktail Book' with the recipes compiled by Harry Craddock of the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, London and 'decorations' by Gilbert Rumbold. The book was then subsequently republished several times; 1952, 1965, 1985, 1996 and most recently in 1999 with some new text and a number of new cocktails added by Peter Dorelli.[12]

[edit] Savoy Pier

Savoy Pier is located near the river entrance to the hotel, but is not affiliated with the hotel. It is a stop on the Thames Clipper commuter service, connecting the Savoy with the City of London, Canary Wharf and Greenwich via a river boat service.

[edit] History of the site

The House of Savoy was the ruling family of Savoy, descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (or "Maurienne"), who became count in 1032. The name Sabaudia evolved into "Savoy" (or "Savoie"). Count Peter (or Piers or Piero) of Savoy (d. 1268) was the maternal uncle of Eleanor of Provence, queen-consort of Henry III of England, and came with her to London. King Henry made Peter Earl of Richmond and, in 1246, gave him the land between The Strand and the Thames where Peter built the Savoy Palace in 1263. On Peter's death, the Savoy was given to Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster, by his mother, Queen Eleanor. Edmund's great-granddaughter, Blanche, inherited the site. Her husband, John of Gaunt, 2nd Duke of Lancaster, built a magnificent palace that was burned down by Wat Tyler's followers in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. King Richard II was still a child, and his uncle John of Gaunt was the power behind the throne and so a main target of the rebels.

In about 1505, Henry VII planned a great hospital for "pouer, nedie people", leaving money and instructions for it in his will. The hospital was built in the palace ruins and licensed in 1512. Drawings show that it was a magnificent building, with a dormitory, dining hall and three chapels. Henry VII's hospital lasted for two centuries but suffered from poor management. The sixteenth-century historian Stow noted that the hospital was being misused by "loiterers, vagabonds and strumpets". In 1702, the hospital was dissolved, and the hospital buildings were used for other purposes. Part of the old palace was used for a military prison in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the old hospital buildings were demolished and new buildings erected.[13]

In 1864, a fire burned everything except the stone walls and the Savoy Chapel, and the property sat empty until D'Oyly Carte bought it in 1880 to build the Savoy Theatre and later the Savoy Hotel there.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Prynn, Jonathan. "Savoy 'up for sale' as Saudi owner's billions dwindle", 16 April 2009
  2. ^ The Savoy, Fairmont.com.
  3. ^ Article on the Savoy renovation.
  4. ^ Article on the closing of the hotel, The Guardian.
  5. ^ a b c "Savoy 2009 Leading the Past", Savoy Hotel website, 2009
  6. ^ Cinegram of the 1939 Mikado film containing photos, cast biographies and other information
  7. ^ Savoy to close for refurbishments.
  8. ^ Tucker, Paul Hayes, Monet in the 90s: The Series Paintings, page 242. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989. ISBN 0-300-04659-6.
  9. ^ Article about Kaspar the cat.
  10. ^ Why we drive on the Left in the UK.
  11. ^ Why does traffic entering and leaving the Savoy Hotel in London drive on the right?, The Guardian.
  12. ^ 104 Details of 104 cocktails with absinthe from The Savoy Cocktail Book.
  13. ^ Somerville, Robert. The Savoy: Manor, Hospital, Chapel (1960) London: Duchy of Lancaster.

[edit] References

Planter in the embankment gardens between the hotel and the river

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Coordinates: 51°30′35″N 0°07′12″W / 51.50972°N 0.12°W / 51.50972; -0.12

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